


Through Frigid Winters

by aurora_borealis



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Gen, Postseries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-19
Updated: 2013-05-19
Packaged: 2017-12-12 07:22:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/808860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurora_borealis/pseuds/aurora_borealis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the war, when Daenerys takes the Iron Throne, the closest she has to an heir is Shireen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through Frigid Winters

Even though her father had been one of Daenerys' enemies (despite having them not knowing each other, but that was just how these things went), Shireen still feels welcomed around her.

After taking the Iron Throne, Daenerys - the Queen, Shireen calls her, but from what she knows, she's also been a Khaleesi. Shireen remembers when all she knew about the Dothraki and khalasars were from books and stories. But now she's asked Daenerys about the life there, and Shireen wonders if Daenerys ever went back, would she take her heir to see the sea of grass.

Shireen already knew, already tried to prepare for being an heir, when her father first became king. When he did that, he visited her and told her that there would be a lot of danger, and he would fight it, but one day he would no longer be able to do that and then it would be her job to be the just ruler he knew she could be.

She misses him. Not that she ever talks to Daenerys about him- every one of the five kings, and King Robert, and every other man said to have a claim or want one, they had been in the way of what had been denied of her.

But she isn't alone. Daenerys shows her the way to braid her hair the way they do in Vaes Dothrak or Qarth, and tells her stories of her travels, and tells her it's a sign of strength for a girl to be touched by death but not conquered, that she has no doubt Shireen can lead the Seven Kingdoms through frigid winters to bright summer days because she has seen with her own eyes the true meaning of cold.

Daenerys is beautiful, Shireen notices. Kind and fierce, and brave and tender- fire and blood, but full of life. She isn't sure if she can be that, but she knows being around her will help her to be someone who will rule, true and good. They call her Mother. She isn't father, and never will be, but sometimes she thinks if her father saw her today after living with Daenerys, he would know that a dragon could do more than burn. He could see more than just bad in her.

Sometimes she still has bad dreams about the dead men come to life, and Daenerys tells her that she can protect her with the dragons- they will always burn and she will have nothing to fear. That isn't entirely it, but she never says so. She thinks she's just satisfied with having someone listen to her, having someone close to her, like having an older sister. She doesn't feel sad around Daenerys, or the dragons- she wishes she could have seen them when they were little so she could have held one.

Maybe there will be another war, and maybe the kingdoms will not love Daenerys as much as she could benefit from, and maybe, Shireen sometimes wonders, she will have to be someone else's heir yet again, always preparing for something she'll never know for sure if she can handle even if she wants to. But a part of her, as the days go by, feels that maybe she can.

When Shireen is queen she wants to make someone else feel like that too.


End file.
